{"id":29488,"date":"2020-11-25T16:15:40","date_gmt":"2020-11-26T00:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=29488"},"modified":"2020-11-25T16:15:40","modified_gmt":"2020-11-26T00:15:40","slug":"cyberattack-forces-shutdown-of-baltimore-county-schools-for-the-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=29488","title":{"rendered":"Cyberattack forces shutdown of Baltimore County schools for the day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) system was forced to shut down classes on Wednesday after it was hit by a debilitating ransomware attack.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDue to issues with our network, all Baltimore County Public Schools and offices will be closed today,\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/click1.email.thehill.com\/umnmvzybchhsjzjhsgnccsmmcyskhyhddfcbzpkhygcwqc_fgndjjhshwdnqnhbsgsg.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/click1.email.thehill.com\/umnmvzybchhsjzjhsgnccsmmcyskhyhddfcbzpkhygcwqc_fgndjjhshwdnqnhbsgsg.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1606429578774000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGFGiWNpBdBCNg3KmJkexKGjVyfgg\">the district tweeted<\/a>\u00a0Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n<p>An hour later, BCPS\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/click1.email.thehill.com\/ehypjvdlqrrfcvcrftbqqfppqdfwrdrkkhqlvzwrdtqyyd_fgndjjhshwdnqnhbsgsg.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/click1.email.thehill.com\/ehypjvdlqrrfcvcrftbqqfppqdfwrdrkkhqlvzwrdtqyyd_fgndjjhshwdnqnhbsgsg.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1606429578774000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHGE5j4w0Y2bv5nvoObNqjIUYWBbg\">tweeted that \u201cwe were the victim of a Ransomeware attack<\/a>\u00a0that caused systemic interruption to network information systems. Our BCPS technology team is working to address the situation &amp; we will continue to provide updates as available. For now, please don\u2019t use BCPS device.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The website for the district, which has over 110,000 students and moved primarily to online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, was also down Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n<p>Mychael Dickerson, BCPS chief of staff,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/click1.email.thehill.com\/gtynsjwqmccdfjfcdkrmmdnnmwdpcwchhtmqjlpcwkmggc_fgndjjhshwdnqnhbsgsg.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/click1.email.thehill.com\/gtynsjwqmccdfjfcdkrmmdnnmwdpcwchhtmqjlpcwkmggc_fgndjjhshwdnqnhbsgsg.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1606429578774000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHAuAidDm0Jw6ghT2LVmm7gurHfkg\">tweeted a confirmation of the attack<\/a>, and Dickerson later told The Hill that the school district was working with federal, state, and local officials to investigate the attack.<\/p>\n<p>District officials said at a Wednesday afternoon press conference that Maryland&#8217;s Department of Information Technology and the Maryland Emergency Management Agency were among the organizations assisting. The Hill also reached out to the FBI for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Baltimore city&#8217;s school system, which serves around 83,000 students, also wrote in a notice on its website that students should \u201conly use City-issued laptops or devices\u201d and not personal devices or those issued by Baltimore County Public Schools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS)&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29488"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29489,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29488\/revisions\/29489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}